Arc II, Chapter 25: Play it cool

Carousel as a town was strangely accommodating. Every set came with lodgings of some kind. Some were better than others, but it was quite funny to watch as Sidney’s father grabbed four cots from the basement. Her stepmom gathered nice linens for us to sleep with. They gave us big comfortable pillows and set us up around the house with our own little accommodations.

Maybe the Martin’s home actually was stocked like a hotel back in their world, but I suspected that was a Carousel thing.

I ended up in the den area, which was like the living room, but it showed more signs of being lived in. Antoine and Kimberly were allowed to sleep in the guest room, which was hilarious given Sidney had told her parents that we were her fellow high school students. Her parents just went along with it, not noticing any of the oddness of letting strangers sleep in your house all morning and into the afternoon.

I had given my sleeping trope to Antoine, so it took me a while to actually fall unconscious.

I was awoken five or six hours later by a kid around twelve playing video games on the television in the den.

He noticed I was awake soon enough.

“You slept forever,” the kid said. “You were asleep when I left for school.”

He was still wearing his backpack as he played what appeared to be some other universe’s version of a NES.

“Sorry about that. What time is it?” I asked.

“Two-thirty,” he said. “We got out of school early so we could help set up for the Centennial, but I didn’t sign up for anything.”

I could see he was an NPC, level three. His name was Taylor Martin.

“What are you playing?” I asked.

“Beast of the Dark,” he replied. No further explanation was offered. I remembered being a kid and being wholly captivated by video games and movies. Heck, even as an adult…

I got up from the cot and did my best to fold the blanket I had been given. After I had accomplished a passable effort, I went to leave the den and took one last look at Taylor. He had no idea what kind of world he was in. Life must have been so simple.

I made my way out into the living room. Dina and Sidney were there discussing their children. Dina was almost acting like a normal person for a moment. Talking about her son’s favorite games and taking him to SeaWorld. Sidney talked about her daughter and how much she missed her.

I waited for a lull in the conversation before I said, “So, Taylor is your brother?”

Sidney nodded. “Half-brother. He didn’t wake you up, did he?”

“No,” I lied.

She could tell I wanted to know more about how this all worked.

“Taylor didn’t ever get any older than that in my world. He was killed. The storylines based on my life won’t tell you that. He just doesn’t return for the next movie. I think I’m lucky in that. He never dies, not even Off-Screen. Never ages. Perks of being a Paragon, I guess.”

The mood in the room somehow got more depressing.

“Are the others still asleep?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Sidney answered. “Except Bobby. He talked my dad into taking him to go check on some dogs from another storyline or something.”

Those dogs from Permanent Vacancy had captured Bobby’s attention pretty strongly.

“Is that safe?” I asked.

“For now,” Sidney said. “They should be back soon.”

I nodded. “We need to get going.”

“The Centennial awaits,” Dina said. She almost sounded optimistic.

I went to check on the others. The Hughes siblings had been given places to sleep at the ends of hallways upstairs. That wasn’t to say their accommodations were bad. Those halls were large and homey. It was a nice house. A nice neighborhood.

I peeked down the hall to check if Cassie was up.

She was. She sat on her cot and stared at the ground. She had not quite recovered from her death.

We made eye contact. I gave a quick smile as an apology for disturbing her.

“Isaac’s still asleep,” she said. “Unconscious.”

She was using her The Anguish trope to monitor the team’s health statuses.

“Thanks,” I said. “We’ll be leaving soon. I’ll come get you.”

She nodded.

“Do we have to do another storyline?” she asked.

Adeline had kept a policy of never giving new players false hope. I didn’t know if that was the best idea, but I didn’t know a better one.

“Yes,” I said.

She didn’t react to the news. She was clearly upset. I was supposed to do something to comfort her.

“Well, with your new trope tickets, you will have more than half my Plot Armor, which means I will be targeted before you. If that helps.”

“It doesn’t,” she said. “But thanks for trying.”

She waited a moment.

“What’s wrong with Antoine?” she asked.

“He’s under a lot of pressure,” I said. “He’s the only real fighter we have so it weighs on him.”

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“Does that affect Incapacitation?” she asked. “Because his Incapacitation status flickers sometimes. He woke up a few times last night.”

“Oh,” I said. “He… he got a fate worse than death a while ago. It messes with him sometimes. He’s handling it.”

“A fate worse than death?” she asked. The magnitude of death itself was weighing on her. Thinking of what could be worse than that brought a tear to her eye. “It must have been some fate. His status is flickering right now,” she said.

“They’re awake?” I asked. “Antoine and Kimberly?”

She nodded her head.

“I’ll see you in a bit,” I said. “Could you make sure Isaac is up?”

“Okay,” she said softly. She started digging through her luggage as I left. It must have been nice to have spare clothes.

I left her and Isaac upstairs and went to find the guest room.

When I found the right door, I knocked.

“Just a second,” Kimberly said.

“Is Antoine okay?” I asked. I wished I had Anna with me. She would know what to do.

“Just give us a second,” she said again.

I waited.

Eventually, Kimberly answered the door, dressed in clothes I hadn’t seen her in.

“Are those Sidney’s?” I asked, distracted.

“Yes,” she answered. “Antoine and I are still getting ready. We’ll be out in a bit.”

As she tried to shut the door, I put my foot in the way. “Is Antoine having problems?” I asked.

“He’s getting ready,” Kimberly said, at first trying to keep up some pretense, but then she said, “He’s having some….”

She gave up on the excuse.

I peered into the room. Antoine was buttoning up his cardigan.

“I’m alright,” he said as I looked at him. “Everything’s okay. Just a nightmare.”

His voice cracked.

There was a pause as I thought of what to say.